New Park a Hit With Old-School Reds Fans

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, May 23, 2003

They started out watching baseball in Redland Field, later known as Crosley, where the 1919 Cincinnati Reds played Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago "Black Sox."

Then it was Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field, where the Big Red Machine ruled, Pete Rose got hit No. 4,192 and the Reds won three World Series crowns.

Friday night, the three sat together in Great American Ball Park for the first time, watching Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns.

James Fox, 95, and brothers Bob Hengehold, 93, and Dick, 91, have been friends since childhood, brought together by Reds baseball.

"We've known Foxy for 80 years," said Bob Hengehold, who lives in Cincinnati. "We're blessed. Most people don't have a friend for that long."

The new ballpark was an instant hit with all three.

"This place has gotten some criticism, but I don't see it," said Dick Hengehold, also of Cincinnati. "It's beautiful. This is my favorite so far."

Baseball is the common thread for the men.

Fox, who now lives with a daughter in Springfield, used to sell the baseball extra editions that came out at 11 a.m. with the previous day's baseball news. He'd earn four-fifths of a cent for every 2-cent newspaper he sold.

"When the Reds won, I'd have to holler, 'Reds Win! Reds Win!'" Fox said. "They sold well then. When the Reds lost, I didn't do very well."

When they didn't have tickets, they'd sneak into a saloon to get the score from the ticker-tape machine and run home to spread the word. They even played amateur baseball together in the city Municipal League.

With the three on Friday night were four generations of the Fox family: his three daughters, three of his four sons, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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"He's been waiting for this weekend for six years," daughter Eileen Krauss said.